City cabbie nabbed for robbing, attempting to rape passenger

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City cabbie nabbed for robbing, attempting to rape passenger
Published: 2/07/2011 at 12:00 AM
Bangkok Post: Newspaper section: News
 
Police have arrested a Bangkok taxi driver for allegedly robbing and attempting to rape a woman passenger.

Police identified the man as Arnat Saweeyanon, 39, a former air force non-commissioned officer.

Mr Arnat was detained at a rented house in Prachuap Khiri Khan's Bang Saphan district after more than three weeks on the run.

On June 7, a 27-year-old woman, who has not been identified, told police at Khok Kram station in Bangkok's Bung Kum district that she got into a taxi driven by Mr Arnat at Kasetsart University and asked him to take her to her home in Nawamin Soi 68 in Bung Kum district.

On the way, the woman said Mr Arnat drove her along an unfamiliar road and asked to search her purse, claiming he was a detective at Lat Phrao station and suspected she might be carrying drugs.

She said when she refused to allow the search, the driver pretended to pull out a gun and showed her handcuffs.

Mr Arnat allegedly then told the woman to move from the back seat and sit next to him and took the Watcharapol-Kanchanaphisek expressway.

The woman said she escaped from the vehicle when the driver stopped to pay the expressway toll and ran to the nearest police checkpoint.

Mr Arnat drove away and later abandoned his car on the Rangsit-Nakhon Nayok road in Thanyaburi district of Pathum Thani. He allegedly took off with 400 baht in cash and a mobile phone from the woman's purse.

Police said Mr Arnat was attached to Wing 5 in Prachuap Khiri Khan when he was in the air force.

Mr Arnat allegedly told police he had robbed passengers "a few times" before but said he had never tried to rape any.

Police say the suspect told them he thought the woman was a migrant worker from Laos and decided to take a different route because he thought she would not realise.

He denied trying to rape her. The suspect allegedly said he did touch her groin area, but only because he wanted to check for hidden money or valuables.

Police said after the victim fled, Mr Arnat tuned in to the Jor Sor 100 traffic radio station to see if police had launched a hunt for him. He left his taxi cab by the road in Pathum Thani when he felt that his route may have been covered by police and then went into hiding in Prachuap Khiri Khan, where he was arrested.

Police charged him with theft, attempted rape and holding a person captive.